Karnataka Public Service Commission job racket: Flat purchased in name of family of arrested IAS officer under ED lens

AN APARTMENT purchased in the name of family members of arrested IAS officer Gyanendra Kumar Gangwar near Bengaluru airport has come under the scrutiny of the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing money laundering allegations in the recruitment for 400 veterinary officers through the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC).

Gangwar, 41, who served as KPSC’s controller of examinations from January 2024 to March 2026, has been suspended by the Karnataka government. He is alleged to have leaked the questions of the KPSC entrance exam for veterinary officers — held on January 8 and 9 this year — along with the answers to around 20 candidates who paid Rs 20 lakh to Rs 40 lakh through an arrested middleman, Basavaraj Kannale.

During the investigation by the CID unit of the Karnataka police and the ED, Kannale, 36, allegedly revealed that Gangwar received around Rs 1.30 crore of Rs 1.52 crore taken from candidates as bribes for leaking the questions of the exams, said police sources.

While the investigations have tracked Rs 52 lakh in “bribes” being funneled back to Gangwar through bank accounts of associates of the middleman, for purchase of expensive gold and diamond jewellery for a female friend of the officer from Bhima Jewellery showroom in Bengaluru, the remaining amount of bribes is still untraced, said the sources.

The CID and the ED have indicated, following the arrest of Gangwar on August 29 and September 18, respectively, that some of the proceeds of the crime were used for the purchase of an apartment in the name of the brother of the officer at Godrej Royal Woods complex in the vicinity of the Bengaluru International Airport at Devanahalli.

“The (IAS officer’s) brother and family are unaware of the flat purchased in their name in Bengaluru. They never visited or used the property. It was used by the officer for parties and other activities since it provided privacy,” said a police source familiar with the probe.

The ED has indicated during court proceedings that the apartment at Devanahalli was bought with the proceeds of the KPSC recruitment racket.

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The funds were routed through Kannale and his associates for purchase of “immovable property in the name of his brother, purchase of gold jewellery in the name of his friend, and payment of personal expenses”, a special court for PMLA cases noted last week following an ED submission.

Gangwar has reportedly told the ED that a part of the amount he received from Kannale for the KPSC veterinary officer job fraud was used to purchase a flat in the name of his brother, apart from the use of funds for buying gold jewellery for his female friend.

The ED has also reported that an unexplained amount of Rs 26 lakh was deposited in cash between January 2025 and August 2025 in the bank accounts of a brother and sister-in-law of the IAS officer.

The ED is also probing immovable assets acquired by the IAS officer — a semi-constructed house in Bareilly in 2025 for Rs 25 lakh and a real estate construction business launched by his older brothers in 2025 in UP.